The Verdict is In: Social Networking is a Drug, and Facebook, Twitter, et al, are Enablers

J0321155 I'm rarely surprised by the things I read.  However, while reading an article on Time.com about something I've covered several times, jurors using PDAs during trials, a portion of the last paragraph floored me:

"The temptation to hop online is so great, and the habit so ingrained,
that, as Keene notes, a burglar in Pennsylvania ended up getting caught
because he stopped to look at his Facebook page on the victim's
computer, leaving an online trail for the police to follow."

Granted, assuming the burglar wasn't an IT expert, he wouldn't know he was leaving an online trail, but you'll recall I also posted about a felon who boasted on MySpace about committing a murder.

Maybe I've been discounting the possibility that there is a positive side to social networking.  After all, we know that most people can't keep their mouths shut, and in fact, if all bad-actors simply didn't talk (the opposite of what we always see on TV, where everybody talks and talks and talks before asking for a lawyer) the reality is, a much lower percentage of crimes would be solved.

I'm curious, going forward, to see if we start experiencing a marked increase in crimes being solved through this type of evidence.  It's something to watch in 2010.